A cavitation mechanism of material sputtering by slow multicharged ions

A thermodynamic approach to the sputtering of materials by slow multicharged ions is developed based on the cavitation mechanism of fracture of the surface layer of a target. It is shown that a strong electric field of a slow multicharge ion approaching the surface of a dielectric target leads to the formation of an extended metastable subsurface region. Cavities spontaneously appearing in this region form a percolation cluster leading to the fracture (cavitational electroexplosive erosion) of the target material. Universal relationships established between the volume of the region of fracture, on the one hand, and the ion charge and the target surface properties, on the other hand, qualitatively agree with experimental data on the sputtering of LiF and SiO$_2$ by slow argon and xenon ions.